Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to stimulus control and, more particularly, to a tactile stimulus control apparatus, a tactile stimulus control method, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, user interfaces, which are employed in apparatuses such as a smartphone including a touch panel and a display screen, have become mainstream interfaces. For example, there is provided a user interface in which a display is scrolled in response to a flick of a screen, the scrolling speed is increased according to the flick speed and the number of flicks, and the scrolling speed is gradually decreased to eventually stop scrolling as though the scrolling is stopped with inertia when the flick is stopped. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2011-517810 discuses a technique that provides a user with a haptic effect according to the scrolling speed by use of vibration of a device. According to the technique, the device is vibrated at a speed corresponding to the scrolling speed. For example, the vibration is decreased as the scrolling speed increases.
Further, the user interfaces are generally configured to stop scrolling when the scrolled area is tapped by a finger while the scrolling is continued due to inertia.
However, conventionally, as the scrolling speed increases, it becomes difficult for the user to visually recognize the scrolling speed. Furthermore, according to the technique discussed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2011-517810, the vibration decreases as the scrolling speed increases. Thus, the user cannot determine the scrolling speed when the scrolling speed is not lower than a certain speed. This causes a problem that in a case where the user taps a display screen to stop the scrolling while the display is scrolled at a high scrolling speed, the user cannot determine a position that is to be displayed as a result of the stop of the scrolling.